British foreign minister ‘concerned’ Iran war taking focus away from Gaza

2026-03-24 - 21:31

British foreign minister Yvette Cooper called for ‘a broader regional security and stability picture that has to include Israel, Palestine and Lebanon’. (EPA Images pic) LONDON: British foreign minister Yvette Cooper on Tuesday said she was “deeply concerned” that the conflict in the Middle East had shifted focus away from the Gaza peace plan and violence in the West Bank. “I am particularly concerned at the moment about what is happening in the West Bank. I am also deeply concerned about the Gaza 20-point plan process being kept on track exactly because of the wider conflict in the Middle East,” Cooper told a parliamentary committee. “I think there is a real deep concern at the moment about what is happening in the West Bank and the scale of settler violence,” she added. Diplomatic efforts are currently focused on bringing Iran and the United States to the negotiating table following a three-week war sparked by US-Israeli attacks that killed Iran’s supreme leader and roiled the world economy. “In other circumstances it (Gaza peace, West Bank violence) would have been a huge focus for us all globally, but in the current circumstances there is so much happening that there is a danger of those issues not being focused on sufficiently,” Cooper said. “We are going to need to build a broader regional security and stability picture that has to include Israel, Palestine and Lebanon, as well as a broader approach,” she added. The administration of US President Donald Trump, along with Qatar and Egypt, negotiated a ceasefire in October to halt two years of devastating war in Gaza. Washington in mid-January said it was moving into the second phase of the peace plan which calls for the disarmament of Hamas, whose unprecedented Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the massive offensive.